Traversing mechanism



Aug. 24, 1948. G. 1. CHlNN 2,447,487

TRAVERS ING MECHANISM Filed March 51, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet l 1N V151. TOR. GEORGE I. CH/NN C. am fifw A TTO RNEYS mg. 24, 1948. e. a. CHINN 2,447,437

TRAVERS ING MECHANISM Filed March 31, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 77 /0 Fl 3 76 a 62 5 a a 7.3 J a 66 J l J 6/ ll W /3 M W 68 6 e/ i 5 l2 6/ l k 66 J J V 46 73 g i i I AW 69 25 68 m V '6? 1 I I w I J \J I 66 J J 7 5 d J m 72 W 25 ea I 1 D V 74' 5 INVENTOR. c INN FE G ORGE ll WWW A TTORNEYS Patented Aug. 24, 1948 NIT'ED STATES FHC (Granted under the. act of March 3-, 1883, as amended. April 30, 1928;; 370, Q. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or' for the Government for governmental purposes, without the'payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to traversing mechanism, and particularly to manually operabletraversing equipment of the kind suitable for traversing a turret; such as the turret of a combat tank, orof a similar installation.

For: traversing a turret or the like, for example, power operated as well as manually operated equipment may be provided. so that when the power is off or not used for any reason. the manually' operable equipmentmay be utilized for eff'ecting the desired traversing movement. The manually o er ble eouioment r vid d for these and likepurposes has been operable from onlyo-ne station. It has been found to be highly desirable to have a plurality of stations, as one on each side of a gun mount. for example. from which the turret may be traversed manually.

The. purposes of the present invention are to provide traversing mechanism of" the class descr bed which may be opera ed manually from a plurality of stations; toprovid'e traversing mechanism of'the class described, which may: be responsive substantially continuously to operation from, either of: two stations and may also be responsive cumulatively to concurrent operation from both of said stations; to provide for utilizing differential mechanism for transmitting. motion individually as well as cumulatively from a plurality' of; stations for traversing aturret': for example: to provide traversing mechanism of the class: descr bed; which may besuspended from or be carried by. the member or part to be traversed, as a turret; and alsoto provide traversing mechanism of the class described: having: an improved construction and'relative arrangement-of parts;

In. accordance with this inventionthere may be provided a differential mechanism comprising. a pair of sun gears in opposed relation and cooperating with. planet or orbit gears whose orbital travel may be utilized: foreffecting the traversing movement of a turret, for example. It then becomes possible by transmitting motion (which may be produced manually) from each of two st'a tionst'o a different one of the sun gears, to provide traversing mechanism which may'becontinually responsive to operation from eitherstation and cumulatively responsive to concurrent operation from both stations. These features provideeq-uip ment which may be always avail'ablefor immediate operation from either station and the cumulative response from concurrent operation from both stations makes it possible to effect the desired traverse at substantially twice the speed which could otherwise be attained.

The features of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of traversing mechanism mounted on a turret.

Fig. 2- is a vertical section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, in the direction of the arrows, the operating crank being added for convenience of disclosure.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 4 is a vertical section on the line i-t of Fig. 1; in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side elevation of the differential' mechanism, the hull and turret, and intermediate drive shafts for the mechanism.

The illustrated embodiment is shown (Fig. I) mounted on a rotary turret 15, a portion of which is broken away to show the hull structure I l carrying an internal or bull gear l2 (Figs. 1 and 3). A pinion gear [3, carried by the turret, may be disposed in enmeshment with bull gear i2, so that rotary motion imparted to the pinion gear will rotate or traverse the turret relative to the hull.

In accordance with this invention this traversing movement may be eiTected by motion transmitted from a plurality of stations, as IE and 23, through difierential mechanism, indicated generally at 25, to suitable gearing such as pinion l3 meshing with bull gear !2. Power requisite for this purpose may be produced by manually operable mechanism at each of stations l5 and 2B and suitable gear ratios between thi mechanism and bull gear l2. As the manually operable mechanism at these stations may be and preferably is identical in operation and differs structurally only inbeing adapted for left and right hand operation at stations l5 and 20 respectively, as shown, only the manually operable mechanism at station 2% is described in detail herein, and corresponding parts of the mechanism at station [5 are indicated, where they appear, by the same reference characters bearing prime marks.

As shown in Fig. 2, the manually operable mechanism at station 29 comprises a pedestal Hi carrying upper and lower radial hearing; it and i8. respectively; which rotatably receive a verticallyi disposed shaft l9 on the upper and lower ends of which are splined bevel gears El and 22, respectively. At its upper end the pedestal carries a hub 23 and a fixed drum 2d, the latter being for an internal brake (not shown). A hori- :zontally disposed, rotary shaft 26 supported in radial bearings 21 mounted in hub 23, carries at one end a bevel gear 28 meshing with bevel gear 2|. A rotary drum 29 may have its hub 3i splined on the other end of shaft 26. A hand grip 32 for manually rotating drum 29, may be mounted on a radial arm 33 carried by this drum.

Although it is not essential to the present invention, it is desirable and advantageous to have this manually operable mechanism controlled when not in use, as by means of a brake (not shown) so as to preclude the possibility of accidental or other unintentional operation thereof.

For this purpose an axially slidable rod 34 may be mounted in hand grip 32 and in a sleeve 36 carried by arm 33 and having its upper or inner side slotted to receive the shank of a lever 3'! for controlling the brake (not shown) in fixed drum 24. The lower or outer end of lever 31 may be disposed in a suitable recess 38 in rod 34 so that this end of the lever will move with the rod as the latter is displaced axially. Within hand grip 32 spaced flanges 39, 33' on rod 34 define an annular channel which receives the furcations 4i forming the bifurcated or forked end of a lever 42 mounted to pivot at 43 on an ear 44 carried by hand grip 32. A suitable hand or finger clasp member 46 may extend from lever 42 in a position to be grasped by one using hand grip 32.

It will be understood that with the structure just described the brake (not shown) in fixed drum 24 is normally applied, as by spring means, and the parts occupy the positions shown in Fig. 2. When an operator grasps hand grip 32 and clasps member 46, rod 34 is displaced axially and lever 31 is operated to release the brake. As soon as the operator releases his grip on clasp member 46, the parts return to the positions shown in Fig. 2 and the brake is applied in drum 24.

At its lower end pedestal I 6 may be provided with a base flange 47 which may be secured on turret ID, as by means of attaching bolts 48 (Fig. 1) so that this manually operable mechanism is movable with the turret during traversing movements thereof. A suitable housing 48 carried by base flange 41 may be equipped with bearings 5| rotatably supporting a horizontally disposed shaft 52 having fixed thereon a bevel gear 53 meshing with bevel gear 22. A suitable coupling 54 (Fig. 1) of the universal type may be connected between shaft 52 and the adjacent end of an intermediate shaft section 56, the other end of which may be similarly connected by a like coupling 51, also of the universal type, to an input shaft 58 (Figs. 1 and 4) of differential mechanism 25.

As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, differential mechanism 25 may comprise a pair of lower and upper sun gears El and 61, respectively, coaxially mounted on an output shaft 62 for rotation relative to the latter. A pair of planet or orbit gears 63, meshing with the sun gears, may be rotatably mounted on arms 64 fixed on output shaft 62 for rotation therewith. Each of sun gears 6| and 61' may have afiixed thereto an outwardly facing bevel gear 66 and 66' respectively. As shown in Fig. 4, bevel gear 66 may mesh with a bevel gear 61 fixed on input shaft 58, and similarly, bevel gear 66' may mesh with a bevel gear 61' fixed on input shaft 58'. For transmitting power to pinion I3, output shaft 62 may have a pinion 68 fixed on its lower end and meshing with a gear 69 (Fig. 3) fixed on a shaft H on which pinion gear 13 is also fixedly mounted.

A suitable housing 12 may be provided for supporting the differential and associated mechanism just described. This housing may be equipped with upper and lower bearings 13 for output shaft 62, with spaced bearings 14 and 14 for input shafts 58 and 58', respectively, and with upper and lower bearings 16 for shaft II. The housing may be provided with a pair of arms 11 and 18 (Figs. 1 and 3) secured, as by means of bolts 19, to turret I 8, so that the mechanism carried by the housing may travel with the turret during traversing movements thereof. If desired, adjoining portions of turret I 0 and hull ll may be formed to provide a raceway 8| for antifrictlon bearings, such as ball bearings 82 (Fig. 3).

In using this traversing mechanism, it is contemplated that an operator may be stationed at or in proximity to each of stations I5 and 20. When it is desired to traverse the turret, the operator at station 20, for example, may grasp hand grip 32 and clasp member 46, thereby releasing the brake in drum 24 so that rotary movement may be impartedto drum 29 and shaft 26 from which this rotary movement is transmitted through gears 28, 2|, shaft I9, and gears 22 and 53 to shaft 52. From the latter shaft, this motion is transmitted through coupling 54, intermediate shaft section 56, and coupling 5'! to input shaft 58. As shaft 58 is rotated, gear 61 carried thereby rotates gear 66 and thereby imparts rotary motion to sun gear 6| which causes the planets 63 to travel in an orbital path, thereby rotating output shaft 62 and pinion 68 carried thereby. As pinion 68 rotates it imparts rotary motion to gear 69 and shaft II which rotates pinion l3 meshing with bull gear l2 and in this manner effects the traverse of the turret. It will be understood that the turret may be traversed in a like manner from station l5. It will also be evident that when motion is transmitted simultaneously from each of stations l5 and 20 by rotating drums 29' and 29, planets 63 will travel in an orbital path'at a speed representing the cumulative effect of the motion transmitted from each of these stations, and therefore the turret may be traversed at substantially twice the speed attainable by operating the traversing mechanism from either station alone. It will be seen that pinion I3 is continuously responsive to operation of the manually operable mechanism at each of stations I 5 and 20, and that this pinion I3 is also responsive to the cumulative effect of concurrent operation from stations I 5 and 20.

What I claim is:

1. In a traversing device for a rotatable turret of a tank vehicle in which the hull of the vehicle has a supporting ring provided on its inner face with a ring gear, and the turret has a rin concentric with the hull ring, is supported on the hull ring and is rotatable relative to the hull ring, the turret being supported by the turret ring, the combination of a housing mounted on the turret ring; a shaft journaled in said housing; a pinion keyed on said shaft and meshing with said ring gear; a counter shaft journaled in said housing; gearing connecting said two shafts; a second housing mounted on said turret ring; a shaft journaled in said second housing; a third housing mounted on said turret ring; a shaft journaled in said third housing; means connecting both of said last mentioned shafts with said countershaft for driving said countershaft; and a pair of manually operated means mounted in said second and third housings, respectively, for driving said last mentioned shafts, respectively.

2. In a traversing mechanism for a fixed hull and a rotatable turret, the hull and turret having 5 concentric rings, and the ring of the hull being provided with a ring gear, the combination of a pinion journaled on said turret ring and meshing with said ring gear; means mounted on said turret ring for rotating said pinion, said means having a driven shaft for operating said rotating means; and an actuating mechanism mounted on said turret ring for driving said driven shaft, said actuating mechanism having a vertical shaft extending upwardly from said turret ring, a horizontal shaft drivingly connected with the upper end of said vertical shaft, manually operable means for driving said horizontal shaft, and a horizontal shaft drivenly connected with the lower end of said vertical shaft, said last mentioned horizontal shaft being drivingly connected with said driven shaft for operating said rotating means.

GEORGE I. CHINN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,137,953 Cartwright May 4, 1915 1,374,144 Farrell Apr. 5, 1921 2,029,692 Zindel Feb. 4, 1936 2,127,179 Lawson et al. Aug. 16, 1938 2,382,110 Sheldrick et al. Aug, 14, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 541,767 7 Great Britain Dec. 10, 1941 711,946 France July 8, 1931 825,801 France Dec. 16, 1937 

